How To Manage Your Ecommerce Business Like A Video Game

We’ve all spent an hour or seven engrossed in a Zynga mobile game. What pulled us in and what kept our interest? The same principles we should be using in retail to attain and retain customers. From A/B testing to extensive data analytics, Cathy Beaupain (GrowCommerce 2017 speaker and Dermstore President) breaks down what retailers can learn from pro gamers. This is the full interview, which was published in Forbes by GrowCommerce’s Veronika Sonsev. If you want to know more, be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can receive information about next year’s GrowCommerce summit for customer acquisition.

How To Manage Your Ecommerce Business Like A Video Game

What do Farmville and face creams have in common from a marketing perspective? Plenty, according to Dermstore President, Cathy Beaupain. While not an obvious connection to most, Beaupain’s also not your traditional retail exec. She didn’t climb the corporate ladder as a buyer or through the marketing side of the business. Beaupain tuned her marketing chops running product at gaming company Zynga. From there she joined Dermstore, the multi-brand beauty retailer owned by Target.

Cathy Beaupain is President of Dermstore

Zynga taught Beaupain some invaluable lessons she carried into her retail career: (a) how to be very customer (or “guest”) centric and (b) to use data and testing to understand customer needs. It’s these data-driven, customer-centric principles that enabled Beaupain to double the average annual sales per Dermstore customer within 18 months.

Here’s some of the learnings from Zynga that Beaupain used to drive Dermstore’s growth:

Veronika Sonsev: What are the most valuable skills you learned at Zynga that have benefited you at Dermstore?

Cathy Beaupain: At Zynga, the mission was to connect the world through games. We did this by creating compelling experiences that captured the attention of millions of people globally. Creating these experiences didn’t happen in the dark. We used technology and data to discover what motivated our guests and leveraged those insights to impact product design. Being a customer and data-centric organization required intellectual curiosity, analytical horsepower, and technological innovations. And, sometimes it yielded unexpected results.

For example, at Dermstore we ran an A/B test for an incentive placed close to our add-to-cart button. The hypothesis was the incentive message right next to add-to-cart button would drive increased conversion. But, it didn’t move conversion rate at all.

Product page with incentive next to add-to-cart button

We learned that if people don’t think they need the product, they won’t purchase it, regardless of the incentive offered. Instead, it’s more important to help people find the right product by introducing beauty-related content as early as possible in the purchase funnel.

As a result of this test, Dermstore removed the add-to-cart incentive and added content to the category landing page. Most retailers believe that placing content this close to purchase decisions distracts from conversion, but in our case, it didn’t impact conversion and actually increased the average annual sales per customer because the content was helping our guests find the right product for their needs.

Content module on category landing page

Sonsev: When you’re looking at the Dermstore business, which metrics do you evaluate? What is most important to the health of your business?

Beaupain: The two metrics I focus on are (a) rate of new customer growth and (b) 12-month Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). We look at these two metrics quarterly to understand the future trajectory of the business.

We calculate 12-month CLTV grouping new customers into monthly cohorts, summing up their total purchases over twelve months and then dividing that number by the total number of customers in that monthly cohort. We then compare monthly cohorts year-over-year. We also use Custora for predictive CLTV, so we can get an earlier read on our business. So far, their algorithms have been pretty accurate.

I like to look at CLTV because that one number encompasses a lot of information about customer health. I also look at leading metrics like rate of new customer growth to measure top-of-the-funnel results and conversion rates and add-to-basket rates when A/B testing to determine the winner of those tests.

Sonsev: You focus a lot on customer lifetime value (CLTV). What are some things you’ve been able to do to improve CLTV?

Beaupain: While I’ve been at Dermstore, we have nearly doubled CLTV. Most retailers focus on post purchase activities to increase CLTV. However, we learned that adjustments should be made upfront throughout guest acquisition, and supplemented by post purchase relationship enhancements like opt-in content-rich emails. We used data to derive insights about our guests’ desires and behaviors, and shifted our marketing programs to target those desires.

We leverage Custora predictive CLTV to determine customer quality based on their expected spend. We also look at where the customer came from and their first purchase to segment the customer, and determine how to service and market to them.

For example, in the last few years, we found more guests purchasing natural products. Natural guests care about prevention — they are younger and willing to explore new products across a broader range of price points. It’s easier to upsell these customers and introduce them to new products.

Conversely, professional guests are usually referred by dermatologists to treat a specific condition. While they initially buy more expensive products, they are not normally open to new products.

We must design different experiences for each type of guest, as they have different needs and purchasing flows.

Sonsev: What tools do you use to measure performance?

Beaupain: We use a variety of internal and external tools. Our internal systems track every purchase to monitor historical CLTV and many of our guest insights. Custora allows our teams to manage CLTV growth proactively.

We evaluate marketing campaign performance and the synergy of different marketing programs with Abakus, a solution that helps us attribute sales revenue to the various marketing programs that touch a customer before making a purchase. We like to compare Abukus’ multi-touch attribution with first click and last click attribution models to understand the delta.

Any company that services a customer need or sells a product can learn and quickly improve results by leveraging data. Zynga used data to prioritize and target guest desires and motivations, and Dermstore transformed its key metrics by doing just that. Now, you can do the same for your business.

Loyalty is Mobile, Mobile is Loyalty: The 4 Key Steps to Winning the Mobile Moment

3:35pm – 3:55pm (20mins)

We all know that in a mobile device-driven world, loyalty begins in the palm of your customers hands. Successfully engaging and retaining your customers at scale means mastering four skill sets: identifying the customer, designing the right marketing program, engineering the systems to execute the program and analyzing the results. In this talk, David Myers (COO of mParticle) will show you the strategies and tactics you can use to avoid the most common pitfalls in each of these areas with particular attention paid to mastering the part that frustrates and de-rails most programs: the engineering and implementation of the proper data management systems.

Speaker

David Myers

Co-Founder & COO @ mParticle

Dave is responsible for delivering business results to mParticle’s customers and partners including sales, implementation, service, support, and overall alignment of company functions to the singular goal of customer success. Dave has extensive experience building teams and company operations from $5 million in revenue to over $300 million. Prior to mParticle Dave was Vice President of Operations at Yahoo! where he led the Audience Targeting and Network Operations teams for North America and was responsible for execution of $305 million in annual revenue. Dave joined Yahoo! via the interclick acquisition. At interclick, Dave was EVP of Operations and a member of the executive team that delivered dramatic revenue growth and listed the company on NASDAQ prior to the eventual acquisition by Yahoo!. Prior to Yahoo!, Dave established and led the Client Services functions at Right Media Inc. during a period of hypergrowth leading up to Yahoo!’s acquisition of Right Media. Dave came to Right Media from Microsoft, where he delivered enterprise software development and services to Microsoft’s NYC-based capital markets clients. Dave began his career in the United States Air Force and holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Wilmington College.

How to Make Amazon's

Presentation

How To Make Amazon’s “Four Pillars” of Success Work For You

4:20pm – 4:40pm (20mins)

In 1994 Jeff Bezos boldly announced that Amazon.com would become “earth’s most customer-centric company” by focusing on four basic themes: Customer Centricity, Continuous Optimization, Creating a Culture of Innovation, and Promoting Corporate Agility. By 2017 Amazon captured 43% of ALL retail sales in the US and had the 4th highest market value of any company on the planet. In this entertaining and informative talk, Jeffrey Eisenberg will show you how to take the “Four Pillars of Amazon’s Success” and make them all your own. All conference attendees will also receive a free copy of Jeffrey’s book: “Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It!” courtesy of the authors and GrowCommerce.

Speaker

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Author and CEO @ BuyerLegends.com

Jeffrey Eisenberg is the CEO of BuyerLegends.com, a conversion-centered, accountable customer experience design and optimization company. Since 1998, together with his brother Bryan Eisenberg they co-authored two Wall Street Journal and NY Times bestsellers. His latest book is “Be Like Amazon: Even A Lemonade Stand Can Do it”. Bryan and Jeffrey have trained and advised companies like HP, Google, GE Healthcare, Overstock, NBC Universal, Orvis and Edmunds.

Afternoon Breakout Session 1 Track 1

Attribution & Measurement Track

Finding the Real ROI: Solving the Challenge of Multi-channel Attribution

3:10pm – 3:30pm (20mins)

In this session, Adam shares some of his real-world insights into multi-channel attribution including: how to know if you are paying for the same customer twice, how to do a “quick and dirty” attribution self-check; and determining the right time to invest in advanced attribution software.

Speaker

Adam Schwartz

COO @ TeePublic

Breakout Session 1 Track 1

Acquisition Marketing Tactics

Audience Hacking: Finding A Needle in A Haystack

11:10am – 11:30am (20mins)

For years marketers have successfully tapped social listening and engagement technologies for competitive intelligence, customer service, and many other revenue-generating goals. Sysomos Chief Strategy Officer David Berkowitz will show you five highly effective ways marketers across multiple industries are mining social content to define their audiences, promote their brand, engage with prospects, expand their reach through brand advocates, and inform product development.

Speaker

David Berkowitz

Chief Strategy Officer @ Sysomos

David Berkowitz is the chief strategy officer at Sysomos. Previously, he served as chief marketing officer at Publicis Groupe creative agency MRY. Prior to that, he spent seven years leading emerging media at Dentsu agency 360i, co-founding its social media practice and running its Startup Outlook initiative.

Through his agency work, he has been a strategist and advisor to brands such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Mondelez, and NBC Universal. David has contributed more than 500 columns to outlets such as Ad Age, MediaPost, and VentureBeat, and he has penned his Serial Marketer blog since 2005. He has spoken at more than 300 events globally.

Afternoon Breakout Session 2 Track 1

Attribution & Measurement Track

Ashley Stewart Sharpens the Pencil on Customer Acquisition KPI’s

3:35pm – 3:55pm (20mins)

Kindness and loyalty aren’t the only keys to Ashley Stewart’s epic turnaround. Mathematical analysis and operational discipline played a huge role as well. Join Ashley Stewart’s VP of Digital Commerce, Julie Daly and Udayan Bose (CEO, NetElixir) as they discuss how a rigorous re-examination of their eCommerce KPIs led to increased profitability through new insights into their customers, a clearer understanding of how their KPIs interacted with each other and the value of viewing the customer throughout their entire journey at Ashley Stewart.

Speaker

Julie Daly

VP Digital Commerce @ Ashley Stewart

Julie joined the Ashley Stewart team in September 2014 and is enjoying the explosive growth of this fabulous Brand. Julie’s expertise includes eCommerce and digital business strategy development, general management, merchandising, marketing, creative, website strategies and financial planning. Julie has a strong P&L background with a proven track record in delivering revenue growth and bottom line results, with extensive background in Ecommerce.

Speaker

Udayan Bose

According to Global-e’s internal research, an average of 27% of a retailer’s site traffic comes from users located outside of the retailer’s home country. That’s a lot of sales you’re missing if your international sales program is not up to snuff. Amir Schlachet, Co-Founder & CEO at Global-e, helps you hone your cross-border program by showcasing the top overserved and underserved global markets, explaining the main things that cause people not to buy cross-border, revealing what specific trends / technologies retailers should reinforce in individual foreign markets and presenting three key steps that will help you capitalize on the cross-border opportunity.

Speaker

Amir Schlachet

Co-Founder and CEO @ Global-e

Amir served for 11 years in various elite technological units of the IDF, including as the commander of the “Talpiot“ military-academy program. Before co-founding Global-e, Amir was SVP and Strategic Advisor to the CEO of Bank Hapoalim, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Amir holds an MBA from INSEAD, M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Tel-Aviv University and a B.Sc. in Math, Physics and Computer Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Breakout Session 3 Track 2

Content & Social

Unlocking the Next Wave in Digital Commerce with Visual Content

12:00pm – 12:20pm (20mins)

Why is it that 79% of people will make an impulse purchase in-store while only 19% of shoppers will impulse buy online? Simple: online is great for buying things, but lousy for exploration. We asked Laurie Weisberg (CRO, Curalate) and Callie Canfield (Senior Director – Global Marketing Communications, David’s Bridal) to discuss how they make their online and mobile experiences more discovery-friendly through improved visual content, why this type of content is critical to capturing the Millennial consumer, and how David’s Bridal has taken the traditional act of purchasing a wedding dress and made it relevant for the current generation of brides.

Speaker

Laurie Weisberg

CRO @ Curalate

Ms. Weisberg, a sales and marketing leader with 20 years’ experience in the technology sector, previously served as Vice President of Brand Solutions at Oracle Data Cloud. Curalate’s CEO, Apu Gupta will introduce Ms. Weisberg at the 2016 Curalate Summit where more than 300 industry leaders, influencers and representatives of the world’s leading brands come together to discuss emerging trends in digital marketing, and Curalate showcases a range of new products.

Speaker

Callie Canfield Worthington

Senior Director – Global Marketing Communications @ David’s Bridal

Callie Canfield Worthington is the Senior Director of Global Marketing Communications for David’s Bridal responsible for social media, influencer marketing, PR and communications. Previously at Anthropologie, Callie served as Marketing Director for BHLDN, the company’s wedding brand where she was responsible for all paid and earned marketing efforts. Callie’s background includes 12 years of experience at top retailers such as Gucci, Gap and Athleta. Callie is a graduate of Fordham University.

Keynote: How Do You Grow

Closing Keynote

How Do You Grow Brick & Mortar in a Digital World?

4:40pm – 5:00pm (20mins)

The retail world is sending mixed signals when it comes to physical stores. On one hand, Credit Suisse reports that retailers are closing stores at an “epic pace” – with an estimated 8,600 stores closing by the end of the year. Meanwhile, online first retailers like Amazon, Warby Parker and Bonobos are having success with their physical presence by re-imagining the in-store experience and taking a digital first approach to customer acquisition.

Nic Vu is no stranger to this strategy. Nic helped Adidas move from generating $400/ square foot in retail to $1200/ square foot as part of one of the biggest comebacks in retail history. Now he’s taking on a new challenge as CEO of Comoto — Nic plans to grow Comoto’s overall business and a big part of that strategy involves digitally optimized retail stores. In this session, you’ll learn Nic’s approach for how to grow brick and mortar stores in today’s digital first world.

Speaker

Nic Vu

CEO @ Comoto (RevZilla)

Nic brings more than 17 years of experience as an executive in both traditional and omni-channel retail. Most recently he was General Manager for adidas Group in North America, where he led the direct-to-consumer businesses, including a rapidly growing e-commerce division growing more than $100 million year over year as well as a brick-and-mortar retail division with a sales budget of more than $1 billion for both the adidas and Reebok brands. Over the last 10 years, the sales of these divisions grew by more than 10 times under his leadership.

Presentation: Un-marketing at T-mobile

Presentation

Un-Marketing at T-Mobile: How the Uncarrier Does Agile Marketing

4:00pm – 4:20pm (20mins)

While T-Mobile is known for being an innovator and disruptor in the mobile phone space, it applies the same innovative principles to its marketing strategies. T-Mobile has shifted from waterfall market planning to more agile marketing practices that has allowed it to be more nimble in the fast-paced world of digital marketing. In this session, T-Mobile’s Peter Francis (Vice President Digital Growth & Acquisition) and Jim Ewel (Interim CMO, Peel The Layers) will share T-Mobile’s new approach to digital marketing and describe the sometimes messy process that was required to make this change.

Speaker

Peter Francis

VP of Digital Growth & Acquisition @ T-Mobile

Peter Francis is Vice President of Digital Growth & Acquisition at T-Mobile, where he is responsible for online discovery, marketing and direct sales, generating $1B+ in revenue for T-Mobile through eCommerce and telesales, served by a global team of 1200 amazing digital marketers and digital frontline. Peter joined T-Mobile from Amazon.com, where he led ecommerce for the Kindle device category and worldwide Kindle market planning. In a former life, Peter has been a systems consultant, a control systems engineer and a faculty member at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has a Ph.D. in decision sciences from Northwestern University.

Speaker

Jim Ewel

Interim CMO @ Peel The Layers

Jim Ewelbegan blogging about Agile Marketing in 2011 and is now the leading blogger on the topic (www.agilemarketing.net). He also was the co-organizer of the first gathering of Agile Marketers, called SprintZero, in June of 2012, and is one of the authors of the Agile Marketing Manifesto, He is frequently asked to speak on the topic of Agile Marketing at industry conferences, and he has taught Agile Marketing at companies as diverse as SalesForce, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Zenprise.

Jim is also an accomplished CEO and marketing executive. He spent 12 years at Microsoft, where he was VP of Server Marketing, working on products such as Windows NT Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Windows 2000. He has also run emerging and very high-growth mid-market companies such as InDemand Intrepreting, Adometry (sold to Google), and GoAhead Software (sold to Oracle).

Afternoon Breakout Session 1 Track 3

Amazon & Other Marketplaces Track

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them! The Secrets to Selling on Amazon

3:10pm – 3:30pm (20mins)

No matter if you are a large brand or a small niche retailer; Ryan Craver firmly believes YOU should be selling on Amazon. As SVP of Emerging Brands, Licenses and Digital Strategy at Lamour Group, Ryan has sold millions of dollars worth of products on Amazon so he knows his way around the 900-pound retail gorilla from Seattle. In this session, Ryan will examine the pros and cons of partnering with Amazon for each of the four main groups of brands and retailers. He will also discuss why he thinks The Big Three Objections to selling on Amazon stand in the way of improving your bottom line.

Speaker

Ryan Craver

SVP Emerging Brands, Licenses, & Digital Strategy @ Lamour

Ryan’s natural fascination with the intersection of retail and technology has led to a career of inspiring and leading brands to be on the forefront of the evolving “connected retail” environment. Ryan currently leads Digital Sales & Operations for licensed brands including New Balance, Skechers and Joe Fresh. Additionally, Ryan is the Founder and Chairman of Commerce Canal, a retail advisory firm driving $100 million in annual retail sales for some of the world’s largest brands in apparel, footwear, jewelry and industrial equipment.

Afternoon Breakout Session 1 Track 2

Loyalty Track

Going Beyond Loyalty Programs to Retain Your Customers

3:10pm – 3:30pm (20mins)

Retaining the customers you have worked so hard to acquire takes more than giving them a loyalty card with an occasional product discount. Customer retention fundamentally relies on using data to communicate with each customer according to their personal needs and affinities. In this session, Pini Yakuel – the founder and CEO of Optimove – will show you several proven retention marketing best practices you can use to increase conversions, decrease churn and maximize customer lifetime value.

Speaker

Pini Yakuel

Founder & CEO @ Optimove

Pini Yakuel is founder and CEO of Optimove, provider of the industry’s leading Customer Marketing Cloud. Pini’s extensive experience in analytics-driven customer marketing, business consulting and sales, along with his innovative approaches to entrepreneurship and business-building, have earned him recognition as a thought leader. Pini has led Optimove to become a market leader, with more than 200 brands, including 1-800-Flowers, Adore Me, Lucky Vitamin and eBags, using his company’s software and services to orchestrate and automate highly-effective personalized CRM.

Panel: Going Beyond Bots

Panel

Going Beyond Bots! Using AI to Work Smarter

2:30pm – 3:00pm (30mins)

There exists a place – somewhere between chatbots and the torrent of artificial intelligence hyperbole – where AI can actually help you work smarter, serve your customers better and make a difference on your bottom line.

To help you find this fabled place, GrowCommerce has enlisted Amy Africa (CEO of Eight by Eight) to dive into this topic with a crack group of panelists: Cathy Beaupain (President, Dermstore), Nilofer Vahora (VP Vice President, Licensing & Product Innovation at Rebecca Minkoff) and Graham Cooke (Founder and CEO of Qubit).

Moderator

Amy Africa

CEO @ Eight by Eight

Amy Africa has been in the forefront of neuromarketing, web usability studies, and successful e-commerce for over 15 years. Amy has been widely published in industry magazines and featured at conferences around the globe. Her depth of knowledge, backed by intensive field testing and web user studies, has earned her the reputation of a voice to be heard on Internet topics ranging from conversion and optimization, mobile and email marketing to manipulatives, artificial intelligence and what truly motivates people to buy.

Speaker

Cathy Beaupain

President @ DermStore Beauty Group

Cathy Beaupain is an entrepreneurial executive with a passion for designing memorable product experiences. As President of Dermstore, a fully owned subsidiary of Target Corporation, Cathy is building and leading a world-class team in using data and design to drive digital innovation and growth in the beauty industry. Cathy’s deep ecommerce and digital experience has been successfully tested in various industries including travel, consumer products, and digital content. She has held leadership positions at Princess Cruises (Carnival’s luxury brand), Oakley (Luxottica Group), and Zynga. Cathy holds a BS in Biochemistry from UCLA and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Cathy’s belief in Dermstore’s mission of promoting empowerment and confidence in women of all ages led to a sponsorship of Step Up, culminating in mentorship events for local girls. She keeps an active lifestyle in Manhattan Beach, CA with her husband and three bright, energetic young children.

Speaker

Nilofer Vahora

VP Licensing & Product Innovation @ Rebecca Minkoff

Nilofer Vahora leads Rebecca Minkoff’s initiatives in innovation in fashion & technology, including wearables and new category growth. She identifies innovative ways in which technology can disrupt the fashion industry and enhance the customer experience.

Nilofer is a strategic business developer with 14 years of combined experience and deep industry knowledge in fashion, luxury, beauty, wearable tech, retail, and consumer packaged goods. She’s a creative, hands-on strategist with the energy, organization, and self-motivation to lead from the highest level of strategy development down to the minutest detail of execution.

Speaker

Graham Cooke

Founder & CEO @ Qubit

In 2010, Graham Cooke left Google along with three colleagues to form Qubit, a new breed of data intelligence company. Qubit’s mission is to help businesses get closer to their customers by discovering behavioral insights in visitor data and delivering personalized content to improve the online experience.

Graham spent five years at Google, ending up as the global leader in charge of conversion rate optimization, helping Google’s customers to get the most from their sites. On top of this, prior to joining Google, Graham ran his own technology company. This expertise has proven invaluable in helping Qubit grow.

Panel: Get Ahead

Panel

Get Ahead: What’s New & What’s Next in Retail

2:00pm – 2:30pm (30mins)

In this session, GrowCommerce takes some time to discuss what’s new and next in ecommerce with Jon Nordmark (CEO of Iterate.ai), Pano Anthos (Managing Director of XRC) and Melissa Grillo Aruz (VP Platform at Forerunner Ventures) – three experts who work at the frontiers of digital retail. We’ll be covering topics like: the impact of AI on repetitive decision making, how visual personalization technology will drive sales, the revolution in data-driven personalization, and so much more. Take 30 minutes and learn what tomorrow holds in store for retail.

Moderator

Veronika Sonsev

Partner @ Chameleon Collective

Veronika Sonsev is a Partner with Chameleon Collective where she leads the Retail Practice. In addition to developing the retail business for the company, she works with B2B clients in retail and digital media to help them accelerate revenue through strategy, marketing and business development. Prior to Chameleon Collective, Veronika founded and ran inSparq (acquired by Adiant Media), a software company that worked with some of the largest retailers and brands to market their trending products in real time. She has also held senior leadership roles at Jumptap (acquired by Millennial Media) and AOL, and has experience launching to international markets, building new business lines, and developing strategic partnerships. Clients rely on Veronika to help them develop strategies for growing their business, tell their story in a way that gets customer attention, and secure those all-important deals to help their businesses scale.

Veronika is an active advocate for women in business, and in 2009, she founded the global non-profit Women in Wireless, which now has over 12,000 members and 10 chapters around the world. Recognized as a thought leader and industry expert, Veronika has spoken at dozens of retail conferences, including Shop.org Digital Retail Summit, FashionDigital and Goldman Sachs dotCommerce Day, contributed to a number of business publications, such as Inc., Forbes, Business Insider, and Retail Touchpoints, and been interviewed by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and TechCrunch. Her success as an entrepreneur combined with her support for women in the digital industry has led Fast Company to include her in its League of Extraordinary Women and TechWeek to name her as one of the Top 100 digital leaders in New York.

Veronika holds a B.A. in Economics and Russian Studies from American University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Speaker

Jon Nordmark

CEO @ Iterate.ai

Jon co-founded Iterate in 2013 and sits as Chairman for eBags.com. Iterate and its international Members use Iterate.ai, a unique web platform which has indexed 162,000 startups, to discover, curate, and validate digital startups for enterprises. Iterate Members, including multi-billion dollar retailers, brands, media, and entertainment companies, leverage Iterate’s on-demand services to both expand and simplify the experimentation, licensing and acquisition of emerging technologies.

Prior to Iterate, Jon was the co-founder of eBags.com and it’s 10-year-CEO. Advancements — like consumer reviews (1999), A/B split testing (2000), and the negative cash conversion model (1998) — were all pioneered by eBags. eBags also built 6pm.com and sold it to Zappos in 2006.

Speaker

Pano Anthos

Managing Director @ XRC Labs

Pano leads XRC Labs as its Founder and Managing Director. Having founded 4 startups around key platform shifts, he saw the seismic shift coming to retail and with the right vision and timing recruited Parsons School of Design and Kurt Salmon to be founding sponsors. Now with 27 accelerated startups, 10 active world class retail sponsors, 60+ business mentors, Pano has built a world-class ecosystem for retail and consumer goods innovation at XRC Labs. He speaks regularly at NRF national and regional meetings, Shoptalk and RILA executive conferences. He leverages a deep startup network in Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston to fuse leading technology, E-commerce and user experience innovations to existing customer-oriented businesses.

Speaker

Melissa Grillo Aruz

VP Platform @ Forerunner Ventures

Melissa is a seasoned marketing professional with 15 years of experience in the development, execution and measurement of online marketing and loyalty campaigns. Her current company, Forerunner Ventures, is an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to partnering with ambitious entrepreneurs who are meeting the challenges and opportunities of today’s rapidly evolving commerce landscape. The Forerunner team uniquely pairs deep domain expertise and an understanding of consumer behaviors, brand building and product, to successfully identify leaders and participate in their efforts to build meaningful companies.

Presentation: Looking into the crystal ball

Fireside Chat

Looking into the Crystal Ball: Predicting the Future of Your Marketing Spend

1:40pm – 2:00pm (20mins)

Get the insight you need to allocate the marketing dollars you have. Dana Telsey – CEO and Chief Research Officer at Telsey Advisory Group – is going to examine the macro trends impacting the Retail/Consumer sector such as changing demographics, the race to the bottom in apparel, which investments retailers are making in enablement technology (like payment processing and markdown optimization), the impact of new opinion leaders in social media, the changes in media mix you need to know about, how fewer physical stores impact digital retail and so much more. This is one talk you don’t want to miss!

From 1994 to 2006, Ms. Telsey was at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. covering the retail sector as a Senior Managing Director. Prior to working at Bear Stearns, Ms. Telsey was the Retail Analyst at C.J. Lawrence and Vice President of the Baron Asset Fund at Baron Capital, Inc. Ms. Telsey is a regular guest analyst on both CNN and CNBC and has appeared as a special guest on such programs as Bloomberg Radio, World News Tonight – ABC News, Good Morning America, The NBC Evening News, The Today Show, BNN, BBC amongst many others.

Giving customers exactly what they want at the precise moment they want it is a real problem for many brands and retailers. Doing it at scale only compounds the challenge. Fortunately, new voice and chat platforms are already turning this challenge into an opportunity to improve customer satisfaction, drive sales, and increase loyalty. Linc CEO Fang Cheng takes the stage to show how savvy marketers and ecommerce teams are using these technologies to provide customers new ways to quickly and naturally communicate with retailers, resolve questions in real time, and seamlessly deal with issues like returns and exchanges.

Speaker

Fang Cheng

Co-founder & CEO @ Linc Global, Inc.

Fang has been a recognized thought leader in ecommerce customer experience. Fang brought together a seasoned team of technologist and product minds to empowering brands with the ability to serve and engage shoppers 1-to-1. Fang previous co-founded business acquired by Amazon, and had multiple years of experience in the investment world.

Breakout Session 3 Track 2

Content & Social

How To Tell Your Story Through Content Without Breaking the Bank

12:00pm – 12:20pm (20mins)

Speaker TBA

Breakout Session 3 Track 1

Acquisition Marketing Tactics

Growing Beyond Your Father’s Search Program

12:00pm – 12:20pm (20mins)

Horticultural supply retailer A.M. Leonard has gone beyond traditional search tactics to engage with their increasingly visually-driven and mobile-enabled customers in a channel that remains a leading driver of customer acquisition for many retailers and manufacturers.

Join Jason Corpus (VP of Marketing and Corporate Strategy, A.M Leonard) and Paul Weinstein (VP Operations and Client Services, Wheelhouse DMG) to show you how A.M. Leonard planted the seeds of search success by moving beyond simple text and PLA management. Specifically, they will detail how they increased conversion rates by implementing responsive design and site speed refinements; improving organic search visibility with virtual categorization for faceted navigation; enhancing search capability for site content and more.

Speaker

Jason Corpus

VP Marketing & Corporate Strategy @ A.M. Leonard

Founded in 1885, A.M. Leonard is one of the premier horticultural suppliers in the U.S. – with a client list that includes Walt Disney World Resorts, Marriott Hotels, and Augusta National Golf Club. As Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Strategy at A.M. Leonard, Jason Corpus oversees the development and execution of strategic growth initiatives for the A.M. Leonard and Gardeners Edge brands. Prior to joining A.M. Leonard, Jason was the Director of the Marketing Career Academy in the Tippie MBA Program at the University of Iowa. Jason holds an Economics degree from Coe College, and an MBA from The University of Iowa.

Speaker

Paul Weinstein

VP Operations & Client Services @ Wheelhouse/DMG

Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group is a performance-driven digital marketing agency. Paul Weinstein serves as Vice President at Wheelhouse, and has been deeply involved in business and web analytics in various roles since 2008. Paul has almost two decades of executive management experience in roles spanning operations, sales, marketing and finance, and in industries such as consumer products, fashion and apparel, and digital marketing. In addition to holding an Engineering degree, Paul also earned his MBA in 2008, graduating first in his class from the UW Foster School of Business.

Breakout Session 2 Track 3

Customer Experience for Acquisition

AI-Driven Insights Any Retailer Can Use from Luxury Brand Cosabella

11:35am – 11:55am (20mins)

Can artificial intelligence help retail sites uncover better customer experiences? If luxury lingerie company Cosabella is any guide, the answer is a resounding yes. Join Gurmeet Lamba, COO of Sentient Technologies, and Guido Campello, CEO of Cosabella, as they showcase how Cosabella found messages that resonated more and designs that converted better with the help of genetic algorithms.

Speaker

Guido Campello

CEO @ Cosabella

Miami native Guido Campello specialized in industrial design at Design & Architecture Senior High and in Urban Design and Planning at New York University. Commencing his design career at Pompei AD New York and later in Tokyo at luxury fashion distribution company Unit & Guest, in 2007 he joined Cosabella as VP Branding & Innovation, leading brand collaborations and global B2B/D2C strategy. In 2014 Guido became Cosabella’s first CEO and was inducted into The Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Speaker

Gurmeet Lamba

COO and GM @ Sentient Technologies

Gurmeet Lamba is COO and GM of Sentient’s Ascend business unit. Prior to joining Sentient, Gurmeet led the Riverbed product team for UCExpert – a monitoring solution for enterprise Unified Communications. He came to Riverbed with the acquisition of OPNET, which had previously acquired his company Clarus Systems, a firm specializing in VoIP/video management software.Before joining Clarus, Gurmeet was Director of Engineering for Avaya’s Unified Communications business unit.

Breakout Session 2 Track 2

Content & Social

5 Facebook Tactics That Get You Customers Now

11:35am – 11:55am (20mins)

Facebook should be your number one source for new customers. If it isn’t; give social media pro Emily Hickey 20 minutes of your time and she will give you the five top tactics that she uses to make Facebook rock the register. Learn how minor tweaks to creative make all the difference, how to use Messenger as the email marketing platform it really is, how and when to use Facebook’s native tools to maximum advantage and so much more.

Speaker

Emily Hickey

Co-founder @ InstantAdCopy.com

Emily Hickey is a veteran growth expert – driving aggressive revenue growth for ecommerce businesses. Emily is the Co-Founder of InstantAdCopy.com, which provides digital marketing services (like writing Facebook ads, landing pages, and emails that actually sell) to businesses of all sizes on an on-demand basis. She also provides growth consulting to clients including People Magazine, Kickstarter, Eileen Fisher, and The High Line. Previously, she served on the executive teams of Lolly Wolly Doodle, HotJobs.com, and PhotoShelter. Emily is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and UNC-Chapel Hill.

As companies continue to demand transparency and measurement, affiliate marketing is seeing a renaissance. However, the rules of the games are changing quickly: brands are taking direct control over their performance marketing programs to ensure brand alignment and to expand outside of the traditional publisher base. Affiliate marketing is morphing into standardized partnerships at scale with brands leveraging the affiliate channel to manage influencers and business development relationships. These partnerships are based on CPA payouts tied to advertiser goals, centralized reporting, automated payments and a standard operating framework

In this session, Acceleration Partners CEO Robert Glazer will share strategies and best practices for managing large-scale performance partnerships. He’ll also review how brands such as adidas, ebay and Uber have jumped ahead of the curve. Special Bonus: All session attendees will receive a free copy of Robert’s new book: “Performance Partnerships: The Checkered Past, Changing Present & Exciting Future of Affiliate Marketing” courtesy of the author and GrowCommerce.

Speaker

Robert Glazer

CEO @ Acceleration Partners

Robert (Bob) Glazer is the founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, and the founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. He is a serial entrepreneur with an exceptional track record and passion for growing revenue and profits for B2C-based companies. In demand by top brands and investment firms, he has extensive experience in the consumer, e-commerce, retail, online marketing, and ad-tech industries—partnering with brands such as adidas, ModCloth, Reebok, Target, Tiny Prints, Gymboree, and Warby Parker.

Breakout Session 1 Track 3

Customer Experience for Acquisition

Right Place, Right Time: Creating The Real Time Relevance Millennials Demand

11:10am – 11:30am (20mins)

It is no secret that retailers struggle to keep up with the ever-increasing consumer demand for immediate, personal and highly relevant information. How should digital marketers tackle this complex problem? Sarah Henry (Sr. Director, Channel Marketing Strategy at The Vitamin Shoppe) and Jean-Christophe Hermann (EVP of Global Marketing and Digital Transformation Strategist, Valtech) provide some of the answers as they discuss the four main areas where you can find the right moments to engage your customers, examine how to use customer-facing technology to reach your audience, and take a dive into how the Vitamin Shoppe drives revenue and engagement by knowing when and how to interact with their millions of customers.

Just Press Play: Spartan’s Muscular Use of Video and Multi-Media Marketing

11:10am – 11:30am (20mins)

In just seven years, Spartan Race has grown from a single obstacle course event in Pittsfield, Vermont into a global phenomenon with over 1 million people participating in more than 200 events in 30 countries this year. Gregory McEachern – Spartan Race’s VP of Global Brand Marketing – believes that a large part of this, and future growth rests on Spartan’s skill at creating and deploying video and multi-media marketing at scale. In this session, Greg will discuss the different kinds of media they produce, how they scale their efforts, the ways they encourage and collect video content from their users, and the challenges they face engaging their 5 million+ social media followers and transforming Spartan into a full lifestyle brand encompassing fitness, nutrition and branded products.

Speaker

Gregory McEachern

VP of Brand Marketing @ Spartan Race

Global brand marketer with 15+ years experience in retail, sporting goods and experiential events. Graduate of the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with a focus in design and Art History. Career experience includes City Sports as head of Design and Visual Merchandising, PUMA as Brand Agent and now Spartan as VP, Global Brand Marketing.

Panel: Agencies 2.0

Panel

Agency 2.0: New Models for Working With Agencies

10:30am – 11:00am (30mins)

Digital marketing agencies are subject to the same harsh winds of change as every other part of the eCommerce ecosystem. Get your agency relationships wrong and you’ll likely find that a lot of money gets wasted and a lot of opportunity gets missed. We’ve assembled a retailer panel to discuss how the relationships between digital retailers and their agencies have changed now that we have entered retail’s post-omnichannel era. Specifically, we will look at what agency services are becoming commoditized and what new services are emerging in their place; what to look for when hiring a new agency; how to monitor performance; the importance of validating and integrating data from multiple agencies; and when it may be time to part ways.

Moderator

Melissa Campanelli

Editor-in-Chief @ Total Retail

Melissa Campanelli is the editor-in-chief/content director of Total Retail, a media brand that publishes a quarterly print issue and daily e-newsletter (Total Retail Report), maintains a daily-updated website, and hosts live and virtual event, all about retail.Melissa is also the co-founder of the Women in Retail Leadership Circle, a sister brand of Total Retail. Prior to joining NAPCO Media, parent company of Total Retail, Melissa spent 10 years at DM News, where she was first a senior editor and then deputy editor. She’s also a leading expert in small business e-commerce and author of the books “Entrepreneur Magazine’s Open an Online Business in 10 Days” and “55 Surefire Internet Businesses You Can Start for Under $5,000.” Melissa can be reached at (718) 788-1772 or mcampanelli@napco.com.

Speaker

Jessica Jacobs

Director of Marketing @ Wayfair

Jess is a Director of Marketing for Wayfair, responsible for Display, Social, Content and App marketing. Her team’s goal is to find new customers and introduce them to the brand for the first time and engage Wayfair’s existing customer base to drive incremental sales.

Jess came to Wayfair from NYC where she ran the West Coast set of accounts for an online advertising and data products start-up. Prior to that, she was a manager in the Tech, Media and Telecom practice at McKinsey & Company.

Speaker

Prama Bhatt

SVP, Digital & eCommerce @ Ulta Beauty

Prama Bhatt oversees ULTA.com, mobile apps, digital marketing and omnichannel. She has led various retail eCommerce teams for over 12 years, delivering eCommerce growth and driving omnichannel capabilities.

Prior to joining Ulta Beauty in 2014, Prama held eCommerce leadership roles at Kenneth Cole Productions and Toys R Us. In addition to her retail industry experience, Prama was a management consultant with Booz Allen and had a tenure at Ford Motor Company where she held various roles in product design and development, manufacturing and strategy.

Speaker

Jesse Eisenberg

VP of Client Services @ Elite SEM

Jesse Eisenberg, VP of Client Services, has been part of the Elite SEM family since 2008. In his 8 years at the Elite SEM New York City Headquarters, he helped build the award-winning digital marketing agency from 5 people to over 150. In addition to working at Elite, Jesse has taught Search Engine Marketing as an adjunct instructor at NYU’s School of Continued Professional Studies. He was also recruited by Google from an appearance in a focus group as the only Search Engine Marketing professional in the country to consult for an educational Digital Marketing mobile app called Primer. Now working out of our Fort Lauderdale office, Jesse heads our Business Development team and is a frequent speaker at eCommerce and Digital Marketing events.

Panel: Breakthrough

Panel

Breakthrough Marketing Strategies That Convert

10:00am – 10:30am (30mins)

Session Theme: What are the right creative messages and formats (both on and off-line) that break through the clutter, get attention, and convert?

Gaining a customer’s attention begins with “respect” for the consumer’s experience and time. Digital marketers – by focusing on efficiency over effectiveness –ignore this truism at their peril. Case in point: consumers are expressing their disdain for irrelevant advertising by adopting ad blocking software at record rates as retailers flood the market with inexpensive digital display advertising.

Join Andrea Wasserman as she moderates a panel of fellow veteran digital retail marketers – Sarah Dorsett, Lewis Gersh, and Charlie Cole – on a discussion about the tactics and strategies they use to break through the digital clutter by understanding and respecting the consumer’s needs first.

Moderator

Andrea Wasserman

Consultant @ Captain Customer

Andrea Wasserman is the founder of Captain Customer, LLC, where she’s a consultant to retail tech startups seeking to establish partnerships within the retail industry. Andrea also worked with larger companies as a Senior External Advisor to McKinsey & Company.

Prior, Andrea was SVP and Head of Direct-to-Consumer at Nine West, where her team rolled out associate-facing technology in stores, increased the number of product categories sold online, and launched Nine West’s first mobile app. From 2014-2015, Andrea was the SVP/GM of eCommerce for Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor, directly and indirectly leading teams and processes across merchandising, marketing, operations, and product/technology. Prior to this, Andrea was the CEO of Sole Society, the digitally-born brand of women’s shoes and accessories that expanded from e-commerce to Nordstrom and QVC to pop-up events.

Speaker

Sarah Dorsett

VP Ecommerce @ Century 21

Sarah Dorsett has an accomplished background in ecommerce that has spanned more than a decade. She specializes in site merchandising and marketing improvements that have driven double-digit retail revenue growth. She currently oversees all of Century 21 Department Stores’ rapidly growing website, c21stores.com, in the role of Vice President. Previously she led the team at Bloomingdales.com, where she captained significant site improvements and functionality as well as dramatic year-on-year revenue increases. She found her niche early back in 2004 at Coty, where she discovered e-marketing and e-commerce skills in the then-budding industry.

Speaker

Charlie Cole

Chief Digital Office @ TUMI

Charlie Cole joined TUMI in 2015 as the Company’s Chief Digital Officer. In this role, Mr. Cole is responsible for overseeing and developing the brands’ national and international e-commerce and digital platforms. Since Samsonite’s acquisition of Tumi in 2016, Charlie has also taken the role of Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite Corporation – which includes oversight of global strategy for brands such as Samsonite, American Tourister, Hartmann, Gregory, High Sierra and others.

Mr. Cole brings a mix of entrepreneurial and institutional knowledge to the Company with success in both fields, and a focus on creating structures to empower creativity driven by energy and objectivity. Prior to joining TUMI, Mr. Cole held various leadership positions, including serving as CEO of The Line, and head of e-commerce for Lucky Brand and Schiff Nutrition, the largest acquisition of a VMS company in the history of Wall Street.

Speaker

Lewis Gersh

CEO @ PebblePost

Lewis Gersh is CEO of PebblePost, guiding corporate strategy and vision at the company with over 19 years of board and executive management experience. Prior to PebblePost, Lewis founded Metamorphic Ventures, one of the largest portfolios of companies specializing in retargeting, ecommerce and database marketing.

Earlier, Lewis founded Worldly Information Network, a database direct marketing company leveraging user-driven segmentation. Lewis received a B.A. from San Diego State University and a J.D. and Masters in Intellectual Property from UNH School of Law. Lewis is an accomplished endurance athlete having competed in many Ironman triathlons, ultra marathons and parenting.

Speaker

Nick Stafford

COO @ Leesa

Nick loves to build, and scale, disruptive, consumer brands. As COO, Nick focuses on scaling our organization and delivering the day to day operations across performance and brand marketing, development, design, product management and customer experience teams. Prior to Leesa, Nick has built stand out sales, marketing, development and operational teams in ecommerce and the services and travel industries. Nick joined Leesa from cove, a co-working company, where he was COO. Previously, Nick was a VP at Amazon-backed marketplace, LivingSocial, where he led the restaurants, travel, health & beauty divisions. Earlier in his career Nick ran consumer travel brands including the global yacht business – The Moorings & Sunsail – leading a team of 1,200 operating in 45 countries. Nick was also the co-founder of an online travel startup, The First Resort. Nick holds an MBA from Europe’s leading business school, IMD in Switzerland, and is a qualified accountant.

Presentation: Break Down Silos

Presentation

The Strategy and Tactics Needed to Achieve Customer Acquisition at Scale

9:35am – 9:55am (20mins)

Successful customer acquisition requires the right combination of unique data and strategies supported with upper-funnel performance metrics that truly demonstrate the effectiveness of display prospecting campaigns. In this session, we’ll discuss how to implement the right combination of first-, second- and third-party data to acquire highly-relevant audiences and the various tactics you should consider to reach them across devices and platforms. We’ll also dive into the best metrics for evaluating prospecting campaigns so you can have confidence in your customer acquisition efforts as you understand their impact on the full consumer journey.

Speaker

Danny Kourianos

SVP Product @ Rakuten Marketing

As SVP of Product at Rakuten Marketing, Danny Kourianos is passionate about innovating ad technology that solves the challenges advertisers face every day. Danny joined Rakuten Marketing in 2012 when Rakuten acquired mediaFORGE, where Danny was VP of Product. He was brought on to oversee product across all of Rakuten Marketing in 2013. Prior to mediaFORGE, Danny developed his product and industry acumen with careers at eBay and Yahoo, and developed his signature sense of humor during his first career as a standup comedian in NYC.

Keynote: New Beginnings

Morning Keynote

New Beginnings: Building a Kids Brand from the Ground Up

9:15am – 9:35am (20mins)

We open the GrowCommerce 2017 Conference with insights from a true digital commerce veteran. Miki Berardelli’s 20+ year eCommerce leadership career spans companies like Tory Burch, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Chico’s FAS. In her Keynote session, Miki will discuss how her experience manifests itself in her role as CEO of Kidbox as well as informs the drivers of Kidbox’s success: listening to all of their customers, analyzing data properly, using technology in innovative ways and building a culture of giving. Start your conference day off right with an entertaining and informative talk infused with two decades of well-earned knowledge and wisdom.

Speaker

Miki Berardelli

CEO @ KIDBOX

Miki joined KIDBOX LLC — the first kids’ style box offering cool brands, amazing savings and a mission to clothe one million children in need — as Chief Executive Officer in September 2016. From 2014 to 2016, Miki was President, Digital Commerce & Chief Marketing Officer, EVP at Chico’s FAS. She oversaw the Digital Commerce business and Marketing strategy for three distinct brands, Chico’s, White House Black Market and Soma Intimates. Prior to this role, Miki was Chief Marketing Officer at Tory Burch from 2009 to 2014 where she was responsible for global Marketing, Public Relations and Digital Commerce. Prior to joining Tory Burch, Miki was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Ralph Lauren where she spent nearly eight years developing and leading multi-channel marketing strategy for the retail businesses.

She was recognized in 2011 as one of the “Top Women in Cross-Channel Retail,” in 2013 as one of Brand Innovators “Top 50 Women Brand Marketers,” as one of the “Ten of Tomorrow” by Women’s Wear Daily, and received the “Silver Plaque Award” from the NRF in 2015 for her contributions to the retail industry.